Gaby Neher
Lecturer, Faculty of Arts
Contact
- workRoom A15 Department of Art History, Lakeside Arts Centre
University Park
Nottingham
NG7 2RD
UK - work0115 95 13184
- fax0115 84 67778
- gabriele.neher@nottingham.ac.uk
Expertise Summary
Cultural Relations of smaller, provincial centres to a dominant political overlord, with particular focus on the relation of such Northern Italian centres as Brescia and Verona to Venice in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and issues of identity and patronage in sixteenth cebtury Northern Italian painting, espcially in Brescia and the Magno Palazzo in Trento. These issues feed into work on Romanino's activities in the mountainous regions north of Brescia, in the Val Camonica. Further research and teaching interests include Art and Religion; Italy and the North; Women in Renaissance Art. I am currently working on a monograph that looks at Brescia, Verona and Venice, where my main focus is to address the question of cultural exchange between political overlord and subject town, or, phrased differently, between a visually dominant centre and a culturally subject periphery.I hope to argue that artistic exchange in the Veneto between 1400- 1600 was not one-directional, that is moving exclusively from the centre, Venice, to the periphery (Verona and Brescia), but that the process also worked in reverse, from the periphery to the centre.
These ideas can be introduced by consideration of the argument that ' simple imposition of Venetian authority upon the cities of the terra ferma was impossible, given distinct and incompatible legal systems, products of the very different historical evolution of Venice and the mainland' (Grubb,1988, xiv). What this meant in reality was that towns with a strong sense of tradition and a firmly established sense of their own visual and civic identity, Venetian rule might manifest itself as only the thinnest of veneers, which goes a long way towards explaining the differences as well as, importantly, the superficial similarities in expression, style and subject-matter of the arts in the cities of the Veneto. In fact, submission to Venetian rule did not necessarily result in an obliteration of a town's cultural and political practices, but instead, often brought about a fostering of a distinctive local tradition. Geographic distance appears to be significant in this process: both Brescia and Verona were sufficiently removed from Venice to be able to persist with local idioms of expression while also selectively choosing to adopt Venetian cultural models.
This study suggests that Venetian acquisition of mainland territories (a process that started in the 14th century, but gained momentum after 1404), marked a new phase in Venetian history, one that directed energies away from an exclusive preoccupation with its maritime outposts in the East, and committed its sometimes rather unwilling citizens to the management, pacification and administration of extensive landholding to the West and outside the protection of the lagoon. The impact of Venetian rule on the culture of the cities it occupied is undeniable, yet what also needs to be considered is the impact of the acquisition of mainland territories on developments, both cultural and political, within Venice itself. This included, crucially, a rethinking of the way in which the visual identity of Venice itself was presented, especially in the major loci of political power, that is, St. Mark's Square and the Doge's Palace itself.
Supervision
At present Gabriele Neher
Recent Publications
NEHER, G., 2008. Verona and Vicenza. In: HUMFREY, P, ed., Venice and the Veneto: Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance 1st. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 252-284 NEHER, G., 2008. Renaissance Identities: Venice, Brescia and Verona and the Fashioning of Cultural Identities, 1405-1550 London: Ashgate.
NEHER, G., ed., 2008. Making Renaissance Connections. Aldershot: Ashgate.